Tentative peace talks between India and Pakistan have stalled after the Mumbai attacks, India said on Tuesday (December 16), and can only resume if Islamabad takes more decisive action against militant groups on its soil.India-Pak talks stalled after Mum attack
The talks, known as the composite dialogue, began in 2004 after the nuclear-armed neighbours almost came to the brink of war two years earlier over an attack on the Indian parliament blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.
Those talks were thrown into jeopardy last month by the Mumbai attacks, which killed at least 195 people and which India has blamed on Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
“There is a pause in the composite dialogue process because of the attack on Mumbai,” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in the disputed region of Kashmir.
The peace process has brought better diplomatic, trade and sporting ties but little progress has been made on major disputes such as the divided Jammu and Kashmir region.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Islamabad said Pakistan was committed to the peace process while resigned to a pause in it.
“It’s in the larger interests of the whole region,” said the spokesman, Mohammad Sadiq. “If Mr Mukherjee says there’s a pause, then there’s a pause.”
India, the United States and Britain have blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba and other affiliated groups for the Mumbai attacks, saying Pakistan must do more to stamp out militants.
Lashkar was set up to fight Indian rule in Kashmir and has been linked by US officials and analysts to Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency, who they say use it as a tool to destabilise India.
Pakistan in turn has promised to cooperate in investigations and has denied any official links to the Mumbai attacks, but has also said anyone caught in Pakistan will be tried in Pakistan.
Washington has intensified diplomatic pressure to keep India-Pakistan relations from worsening and to keep Pakistan committed to the US-led war on terrorism.
Pakistan has arrested scores of activists from an Islamic charity India says is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, and says it will abide by a UN decision to put the group’s founder Hafiz Saeed on a sanctions list of people and organisations linked to al Qaeda.
But a similar Pakistani crackdown on Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad after the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament was widely regarded as a sham.
Mukherjee said it would be difficult to resume the peace process with Pakistan unless Islamabad demonstrated a firm resolve to stamp out such groups.
“Words must be followed by actions,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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